I to seem to have Blackbirds that have taken over the garden, they do appear to be the most quarrelsome of birds, wanting the whole place to themselves. All last summer they decided that my cats biscuits,just inside the back door, were theirs. My cat who has since died was quite happy for the birds to come into the kitchen for their morning feast, he did speak some bad language at them, but as long as they didn't want his breakfast that was not a problem. This year they will not have any bad talk to put up with, which does make me and my great grand children very sad. I seem to have been invaded by magpies, who since early January are busy building nests in the fir trees in next doors garden, the only thing they bare scared of is the collar doves who continually fight them off. With the robins, chaffinches and more than 100 sparrows seem to delight in watching from the sidelines. I hope they know the offside rule. I DO MISS my cat but the birds and visiting fox are very welcome.
It was supposed to the only thing they "are" scared of, not "bare" scared of. My Great Grand children just loved my stories on Sunday afternoons when the Sparrows returned to roost. I'd say things like "Oh! just listen to those two, they've just come back from Southsea, and the pickings were poor." But, the other ones are saying, "Oh! we have come back from Emsworth, there was lots of goodies there, we'd liked to have brought some back for you, but we would have been so full up, we couldn't have flown home. So next time come with us."
We too have Blackbirds. Our dominant one is a very fat female, in fact when I first saw her I thought surely its too early for her to be ready to lay eggs. There are 2 smaller females who she dominates (maybe her daughters?) and a male who seems to ignore them. We have put mealworms in a tray on top of a low fence which they like a lot as well as foraging in the dead leaves, We also have nuts and seed feeders which the other birds like. We have a wren a robin, blue tits, great tits and sparrows which visit at various times. Although we saw very few in the very cold weather. None of them seem to like the fat block though. One of our problems is that there isn't much cover for the small birds. There is a bush that the sparrows like in summer but there are no leaves on it at the moment. The Wood pigeons, collared Doves and Jackdaws appear sometimes but the other birds dont seem to bother about them too much.
On the subject of Waxwings I have seen some for the first time this year in 2 different locations. A small flock around a carpark in Beeston, Nottingham, where I work and a much larger flock in a field in Lincolnshire where I live. I cant quite understand what they were doing in the field though as I thought they fed on berries.
After a good few years of putting out all manner of lovely different foods for the birds we are - at last - being visited by an ever-increasing variety (which is SO gratifying!).
All winter we've had the cutest little pied wagtail (just one it would seem) pottering about underneath the bird feeding station. He really likes the Robin Mix I put out in a little bowl. We've also been lucky enough to have a small flock of redpolls visit since last December. At first I thought they were just large sparrows, but somehow they didn't look quite right, so out with the binoculars and then I noticed their red berets and managed to identify them from a book.
So, when we sat down yesterday to do our first ever Garden Birdwatch Survey, I was SO chuffed when our very first visitors were the pied wagtail, followed by a goldfinch, followed by one of the redpolls! Then all the usual characters turned up in dribs and drabs, including a gaggle of 15 starlings - very entertaining - if a bit noisy and messy!
So, after all that activity, better get out there now and top up my feeders before the start of the new working week!
I was amazing yesterday doing the garden birdwatch that a goldcrest appeared briefly and then disappeared into hedge- a timely visit, it`s first time I have seen one in my garden.
we enjoyed our birdwatch this morning, especially as our usual visitors of chaffinches, goldfinches, robin, great tit and blackbird were joined by redpolls and siskins in groups of 5 or 6 of each. We've been getting them on and off but in only ones or twos for a wee while now, but they must have know they were going to be counted today!
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I seem to have been invaded by magpies, who since early January are busy building nests in the fir trees in next doors garden, the only thing they bare scared of is the collar doves who continually fight them off. With the robins, chaffinches and more than 100 sparrows seem to delight in watching from the sidelines. I hope they know the offside rule.
I DO MISS my cat but the birds and visiting fox are very welcome.
My Great Grand children just loved my stories on Sunday afternoons when the Sparrows returned to roost. I'd say things like "Oh! just listen to those two, they've just come back from Southsea, and the pickings were poor." But, the other ones are saying, "Oh! we have come back from Emsworth, there was lots of goodies there, we'd liked to have brought some back for you, but we would have been so full up, we couldn't have flown home. So next time come with us."
On the subject of Waxwings I have seen some for the first time this year in 2 different locations. A small flock around a carpark in Beeston, Nottingham, where I work and a much larger flock in a field in Lincolnshire where I live. I cant quite understand what they were doing in the field though as I thought they fed on berries.
All winter we've had the cutest little pied wagtail (just one it would seem) pottering about underneath the bird feeding station. He really likes the Robin Mix I put out in a little bowl. We've also been lucky enough to have a small flock of redpolls visit since last December. At first I thought they were just large sparrows, but somehow they didn't look quite right, so out with the binoculars and then I noticed their red berets and managed to identify them from a book.
So, when we sat down yesterday to do our first ever Garden Birdwatch Survey, I was SO chuffed when our very first visitors were the pied wagtail, followed by a goldfinch, followed by one of the redpolls! Then all the usual characters turned up in dribs and drabs, including a gaggle of 15 starlings - very entertaining - if a bit noisy and messy!
So, after all that activity, better get out there now and top up my feeders before the start of the new working week!